Saudi Arabias prince al-Waleed Bin Talal, who holds no political role but has an influence on the ruling family, says the country's ban on female driving is costing billions of dollars on the struggling economy.

"Stop the debate: Time for women to drive," said a tweet on his official Twitter account in English and Arabic.

He then followed on from his tweet with an official statement by his office on Wednesday.

He said the "economic costs" of women being forced to use drivers and taxis because of a weak public transport system is not helping the frailing economy.

"Public transport is not, at least at present, a fully viable means for them, for even Saudi men do not as a whole use it," he stressed.

"Preventing a woman from driving a car is today an issue of rights similar to the one that forbade her from receiving an education or having an independent identity," he said.

The Saudi prince claimed that the driving ban means that families spend an average of $1,000 a month on drivers.

"Having women drive has become an urgent social demand predicated upon current economic circumstances," he said.

Women cannot drive in Saudi Arabia because of a fatwa declared by a Wahhabi cleric, and remains the only country where women cannot drive.

"They are all unjust acts by a traditional society, far more restrictive than what is lawfully allowed by the precepts of religion," he added.

The National Museum of African American History and Culture - New York Times

What the Brexit vote means for the British economy - Yahoo Finance

The June 23 referendum on the UKs future is unlikely to have a significant economic effect on US and global markets, but the effect on Britain itself is likely to be more substantial.

Across the board, most analysts see the pound depreciating against the dollar in the event of Brexit. HSBC analysts expect the pound to fall as much as 15%, while Goldman Sachs analysts see it falling by 11%.

This wouldnt be a complete negative for Britain. Goldman Sachs found that 80% of the FTSE 100 constituents sales are abroad and exports represent 13% of GDP. A weak local currency is helpful for exporters because the products they sell seem less expensive in other countries. For companies wi

Winter is making a last stand in parts of the Northeast. The string of early spring late storms is being blamed for at least two deaths outside Boston.

Freezing, 40-mile-per-hour wind gusts were no help to first responders in central New York Sunday. It's believed whiteout conditions caused a dozen vehicles to pile up on Interstate 88. No one was injured.

Crews worked to clean up trees and poles knocked over by the snow and high winds in Massachusetts, as many as eight inches of heavy, wet snow fell over the weekend. Downed power lines caused nearly 40,000 outages across the state.

A husband and wife died in a Boston suburb after a tree crashed on their car. Brian Easton was out shoveling snow and saw it happen.

"And I just looked out and it was just a terrible time," Easton said. "The car came along and just perfectly, the tree fell over in the roof. It took about eight feet for it to stop. The tree just bounced right off it."

Wind gusts topping 60 miles per hour blew off rooftops in New Jersey and collapsed abandoned buildings in Maryland.

"I just heard this loud sound like 'pow!' pow!' I mean like it was serious," said a witness, James Miller.

With winter weather advisories and freeze warnings issued from New Hampshire all the way to Tennessee, people like Kathy O'Neill of Brookline, Massachusetts are ready for spring's arrival.

"I don't want any more of this. That's where I'm at right now," O"Neill said.

But up to half a foot of snow could pile up in parts of Massachusetts by the end of Monday.

The international conference on climate change that opens here Monday is widely expected to produce a historic agreement among nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that scientists say cause global warming.

Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister, said Saturday that 183 countries accounting for nearly 95% of global greenhouse gas emissions have submitted plans for how they would reduce emissions.